Copyright 2001 by Edward Willett

At the Youth Ballet Company of Saskatchewan, young dancers are learning more than just dance steps.

"I really want to train them to be young artists, to be expressive, to be creative, to have an appreciation for all the arts, because of course all the arts are related," says the company’s artistic director, Connie Moker Wernikowski. "There’s a whole stream of dance that’s more commercial and entertainment. Our philosophy at our school leans more toward the creative and the artistic."

Connie has been artistic director for seven years, but the Youth Ballet Company has been around a lot longer than that. A non-profit organization, it was established in 1983 by Vera and Gennadij Adrianow, two Russian ballet professionals.

Connie, originally from Prince Albert, has danced professionally for 20 years, working in several dance and theatre companies. She holds a degree in dance from York University, as well as a Masters of Education degree from the University of Regina.

The Youth Ballet Company has two facets to its program, Connie explains. One facet is the dance school, which trains about 230 students in ballet, modern dance and jazz, offering programs for everyone from three-year-olds to adult, and for people with all levels of interest. "We have programs both for recreational dancers who want to dance once a week and for very serious students who want to reach their potential."

The second facet is the Youth Ballet Company’s performing ensemble, "made up of our more serious students," Connie says.

It’s this ensemble of 28 students, ranging in age from 11 to 20, who will present Leaps and Chords: Moving Art January 20 at 7:30 p.m. at the Performing Arts Centre.

"Our whole school does a school recital on May 27 at the Centre of the Arts," Connie explains. "This is more professional. The dancers are youth, but we present them in a very professional manner."

Leaps and Chords will feature a mixed program of six dance pieces, a mixture of ballet and modern dance. "In the modern area we’re presenting the works of two guest choreographers, Brent Lott from Winnipeg and Constance Cooke from Victoria," Connie says. "We’re also presenting work by Elaine Hanson, our modern dance teacher, and our ballet mistress, Darlene J. Williams."

This is the second time the troupe has presented Brent Lott’s piece Catching Shrieks in Cups of Gold. Lott came to Regina in 1999 to spend a weekend and teach the piece to the Youth Ballet dancers; it was originally set on dancers at the School of Contemporary Dance in Winnipeg.

Because the Youth Ballet Company students were on hand for the creation of Cooke’s two pieces, their input helped shape them. "Constance let them improvise a bit and drew movements from them," Connie says.

That’s not unusual for Youth Ballet Company dancers, she explains. "Our students all take choreography class, so generally we work with quite a bit of student input."

In addition to the modern dance pieces, Leaps and Chords will feature a 14-minute ballet piece in five movements, each movement for a different age group. Created by ballet mistress Darlene J. Williams, it’s set to the music Petite Suite by Debussy.

Connie is the first to admit that not every student from the Youth Ballet Company will become a professional dancer. Very few will. Nevertheless, she firmly believes that dance training offers many benefits to any young person, whether they go on to a professional career or not. "They achieve fitness, coordination, grace, body awareness," she says. "There’s a lot of talk about dance, that it ruins young women and makes them diet and hate their bodies. But if it’s done well, it teaches young women to be strong."

It’s still true that many more girls take dance lessons than boys, Connie says. "There’s been such a stereotype on boys dancing over the years," she says. "Boys who dance get a hard time from their friends."

But over the last few years those attitudes have shifted slightly, she feels. "There are more boys in our program than ever before," she says. "There are lots of boys dancing in music videos. It’s my belief boys want to dance as much as anyone and boys love to dance, but our society has really held them back."

Connie hopes audiences will enjoy Leaps and Chords. "Just as a dance show, it’s got nice variety, it moves well, it’s high-quality work," she says. "I hope they’re moved by the movement, the colour, the artistry of the young dancers."

But not only that, she says, "I think it’s really inspiring to see youth who are working so hard and have achieved something."

Posted September 22, 2004